Wondering if anyone knows how I can get an unfair engineer charge properly looked into - I've had a call back from BT about it but the person I spoke to really didn't seem to have a good understanding of the issue.

For many months, I experienced frequent (but unpredictable) loss of broadband sync, and reported it to my provider, Plusnet, who could see the connection dropouts from their end, and sent an Openreach engineer (Engineer #1). He couldn't find the cause of the problem.

Plusnet then told me to report the problem directly to BT, which I did, and made it clear that it was a broadband fault.

BT sent an engineer (Engineer #2) who told me he couldn't properly diagnose the problem. Although he was a broadband engineer, he didn't have the necessary information to diagnose the problem because it hadn't been entered as an SFI job. He ran some tests, which completed successfully (above the threshold for a pass), but he said there was room for improvement and replaced an old junction box between the door and the master socket, which improved the test scores (92% to 99% - something like that). Since the problem was an intermittent broadband problem, we couldn't confirm whether the problem was resolved. It is this visit that I am being charged for.

I monitored the connection over the next week, and it continued to drop. I reported the fault again to BT and added that I was suspicious that the problem might be weather-relatedr, and they sent another engineer (Engineer #3). This engineer could not find any problem that could be causing the drop outs. However, they had once again failed to set this up as an SFI visit, despite me specifically asking them to, so the engineer didn't have the information necessary to diagnose the fault.

I reported the problem to Plusnet again and asked them to set up the SFI visit via BT Openreach since my efforts were getting nowhere. They could see the connection dropouts continuing, and set up an SFI visit. The OR engineer missed the appointment but eventually I got a visit from Engineer #4 who fixed the fault. He found a problem at the telegraph pole (none of the previous engineers had bothered to look there) where the junction box had been left open and there was water ingress - he also changed the 'blue beans' connections there. He also redid my internal wiring, as he wanted to take the internal wiring out of the equation in case the problem continued.

BT have charged me for Engineer #2, even though it didn't fix the problem. They are saying there is 'no proof' that the problem wasn't fixed, since Engineer #3 couldn't find a problem. I think this is totally ridiculous - Engineer #3 couldn't find what was causing the problem, which is quite different from there not being a problem. Further, Engineer #3 was not even on an SFI visit, due to BT logging the job incorrectly, so he didn't have much chance of finding the problem anyway. The fact that Engineer #4 fixed the problem would surely prove that there WAS a problem, but BT will not acknowledge this visit, since it was an OR engineer sent by Plusnet. I've got the engineer's report on my Plusnet ticket, and graphs of the connection dropouts, but would BT accept this as 'evidence'?

I am at my wits' end with this - this problem went on for months, and required time off work for FOUR engineer visits plus a missed appointment. I can't believe they are trying to charge me 130 pounds for spurious reasons. In a fair world they would be compensating ME for months of inconvenience.

as you are a plusnet customer Open reach have charged Plusnet and they have charged you this is not a BT Retail problem as they are just a provider like plusnet as plusnet sent the engineers it is them you need to contract to sort this out not BT

Thanks for replying. The visit I am being charged for (Engineer #2) was arranged directly with BT Retail, and the charge was applied to my BT phone bill. Engineers #1 and #4 were sent via Plusnet, but Engineers #2 and #3 were sent by BT after I raised the issue directly with BT.

I agree that Plusnet should not have told me to phone BT, but this is slightly tangental.

BT could have closed the fault ticket and told me to go back to Plusnet, but they did not. They chose to send an engineer and told me I would not be charged for the visit unless the fault was caused by my own equipment or if the fault occurred again within 28 days.

The fault did occur again within 28 days after the visit they are charging me for. Therefore the charge should be refunded.

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